中国祝圣主教也许是符合传统的

最近梵蒂冈和中国政府之间就祝圣五位新主教所产生的冲突,媒体普遍认为是世俗政权侵占教宗特权。西方评论家们通常认为,只有教宗享有任命主教的权力(见1月14日“美国天主教周报”,以下简称NCR)。然而,虽然中国祝圣主教可以完全认为是一种蔑视行为,但纵观教会历史会发现,任命主教问题,实际情况却要复杂得多。从历史上来讲,教宗拥有直接任命教区主教的权力还是后来的事。一方面,中国任命主教,发生在教廷与北京之间关系正常化期望值正升高的时刻,因而成为新闻。1951年,随着中国共产党政府的产生,上述关系就断绝了。据说,政府承认的天主教爱国…     

Human Values and Product Symbolism: Do Consumers Form Product Preference by Comparing the Human Values Symbolized by a Product to the Human Values That They Endorse?1

The present study proposes a cognitive process in which consumers form product preference by attending to and evaluating the human values symbolized by a product against the human values that they endorse. Individuals in the treatment group were informed that owners or heavy users of specific products hold certain human values. Results show that, compared with the control group, the treatment group perceived greater human value product symbolism and held more favorable attitudes toward products that symbolized the values that they endorsed. Moreover, the consistency between value endorsement and product preference was strongest for individuals in the treatment group who had a predisposition to attend to the symbolic meanings of products or believed that values in general are personally relevant.     

Reporting discrimination in public and private contexts.

The authors tested the hypothesis that members of stigmatized groups would be unwilling to report that negative events that occur to them are the result of discrimination when they are in the presence of members of a nonstigmatized group. Supporting this hypothesis, women and African Americans were more likely to report that a failing grade assigned by a man or a European American was caused by discrimination, rather than by their own lack of ability, when they made the judgment privately and in the presence of a fellow stigmatized group member. However, they were more likely to indicate that the cause of the failure was lack of ability, rather than discrimination, when they expected to make these judgments aloud in the presence of a nonstigmatized group member.     

The effects of experimentally induced stress on false recognition.

The fallibility of memory has become an issue of considerable practical and theoretical importance. Here we studied the impact of experimentally induced stress on the ability of human participants to accurately recognise words presented on a list. We found that stress selectively disrupted participants' ability to distinguish words that were presented for study from critical lure words that were semantically related, but not presented for study. This finding indicates that stress, possibly through its impact on the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex, can potentiate false memories.     

Blocking in Rabbit Eyeblink Conditioning Is Not Due to Learned Inattention: Indirect Support for an Error Correction Mechanism of Blocking

Blocking is a classical conditioning task in which prior training to one cue such as a tone reduces learning about a second cue such as a light, when subsequently trained as a tone-light compound. Blocking has been theorized to come about through a US-modulated error correction mechanism by Rescorla & Wagner (1972) as well as through a mechanism of learned inattention as theorized by Mackintosh (1973). In the case of eyeblink conditioning, an error correction mechanism has been hypothesized to take place in the cerebellum while some form of inattention has been hypothesized to take place in the hippocampal region. The hypothesis we are testing is whether the mechanism of learned inattention is involved in blocking in rabbit eyeblink conditioning. If blocking in eyeblink conditioning is produced by a mechanism of learned inattention, then training to a previously blocked cue should be slower than training to that cue in a na?ve animal. Rabbits that had received tone training followed by tone-light training exhibited blocking. Rabbits that had been previously blocked to the light acquired conditioned responses to the light at the same rate as naive rabbits. This finding failed to support the hypothesis that blocking in rabbit eyeblink conditioning is due to learned inattention, but does support the Rescorla-Wagner mechanism of error correction. The present finding along with previous work on error correction mechanism in the cerebellar-brainstem circuit (Kim et al., 1998) lend support to the theory that blocking, at least in rabbit eyeblink conditioning, seems to be due to an error correction mechanism rather than a learned inattention mechanism.     

Computer program to generate operant schedules

A computer program for programming schedules of reinforcement is described. Students can use the program to experience schedules of reinforcement that are typically used with nonhuman subjects. A cumulative recording of a student’s responding can be shown on the screen and/or printed with the computer’s printer. The program can also be used to program operant schedules for animal subjects. The program was tested with human subjects experiencing fixed ratio, variable ratio, fixed interval, and variable interval schedules. Performance for human subjects on a given schedule was similar to performance for nonhuman subjects on the same schedule.     

Response rate,speed, and completeness: A comparison of Internet-based and mail surveys

Because of their speed and accessibility, the use of on-line research tools has grown considerably in recent years. The present study compared two ways of delivering surveys: Internet-based and mail delivery methods. Although Internet-basedand mail surveys achieved a similar response rate, Internet-based surveys may be more effective than mail surveys in a setting such as when the target population has both e-mail and Internet access.     

Substance Use Research with Indigenous Communities: Exploring and Extending Foundational Principles of Community Psychology

Many Indigenous communities are concerned with substance use (SU) problems and eager to advance effective solutions for their prevention and treatment. Yet these communities also are concerned about the perpetuation of colonizing, disorder‐focused, stigmatizing approaches to mental health, and social narratives related to SU problems. Foundational principles of community psychology—ecological perspectives, empowerment, sociocultural competence, community inclusion and partnership, and reflective practice—provide useful frameworks for informing ethical community‐based research pertaining to SU problems conducted with and by Indigenous communities. These principles are explored and extended for Indigenous community contexts through themes generated from seven collaborative studies focused on understanding, preventing, and treating SU problems. These studies are generated from research teams working with Indigenous communities across the United States and Canada—inclusive of urban, rural, and reservation/reserve populations as well as adult and youth participants. Shared themes indicate that Indigenous SU research reflects community psychology principles, as an outgrowth of research agendas and processes that are increasingly guided by Indigenous communities. At the same time, this research challenges these principles in important ways pertaining to Indigenous–settler relations and Indigenous‐specific considerations. We discuss these challenges and recommend greater synergy between community psychology and Indigenous research.